anewbie
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Posts posted by anewbie
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On 12/4/2023 at 1:48 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
It’s also more difficult to grow and it’s a slower grower.
Hum... maybe i wont' try; i will note it grows like a weed emersed 😉
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What a pair of strong power thingy do:
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On 12/4/2023 at 8:39 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
Porto will have a longer and darker green leaf.
I presume that is emersed; do they look different submersed and is one harder to grow than the other submersed ?
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What is the difference between these two plants (s. sp porto velho and s. repens)? Do they look different submersed? I'm growing both emersed next to each other and can't really see the difference between the two. I do know that sp porto grows more like a vine but the leaves are nearly identical but perhaps i am blind ?
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Your ph looks bogus; i'd let the water sit over night in a cup and re-test it is probably lower.
There are a lot of options; right now i'm partial to L. thayeri; L. araguaiae; and keyholes all three are easy to keep sa cicihld. Wouldn't hurt if your kh was lower but otherwise good numbers for your water.
You could go another route - make the water a little harder and get some nice central america cichild or if you don't want plants go with african lake fishes. Lots of options kind of hard to start from scratch and tell you how to populate it - of course you might prefer salt water fishes.
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Btw: There is no species double orange flash; that is a trade name.
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mine just grow all over the floor but i like the cork suggestion 😉 - i had one that grew for 6 years looked behind the tank one day and saw a huge mess of leaves...
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On 12/1/2023 at 2:53 PM, nabokovfan87 said:
It should have both slots from what I can see in the photos. On the right side you can see some of the vertical ones, but they do appear clogged.
they aren't clogged; they look clogged but if they were clogged all the water in the sump would be pumped into the tank; a video woudln't help much because all you see is water trickling in - the slots are on both sides and the front; if they were totally clogged the water would raise above the top and flow in over the top but as you can see the top is not covered; but the water strains in through the slots on the side leaving the slime in the tank - i think the power heads will do the trick and when i get one with suction cups i will set them up and see if that solve the issue. The relatively weak aqueon 50 i put on there actually did a pretty good job but since the clip wouldn't get over the rim i removed it so i could close the lid after a few hours.
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On 12/1/2023 at 11:59 AM, Seattle_Aquarist said:
Hi @anewbie
That is indeed a skimmer but with the slots horizontal as detritus (aka floating algae) builds up around the edges it becomes less effective, that is why one with vertical slots should do a better job. How many gallons are flowing down that horizontal skimmer per hour? I suspect it is one or two pumps worth maximum. Do you use a 'splitter' where just a fraction of the water returns through the skimmer and the rest through the bulkhead? -Roy
Approx 1000 gallon per hour as there are 4 of them and the total flow is whatever i posted above. There a slits in the side and most of the water is 1/4 an inch below the surface. I did add a aqueon powerhead this morning; it reaches about 1/2 across the tank but the clip is too thick for the frame - i ordered 2 stronger power head on amazon that have suction cups and they will arrive this weekend and i'll see if that solves the issue - they are super cheap $15 each; and less problematic than trying to do something with the sump if they fix the issue - i want to try them before getting 2 more to make sure they make surface waves - the tank is 4 feet wide so it will probably take 4 - the festum and angels do spend a lot of time eating that gunk at the top but hopefully i can kill it off - dead dead dead.
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The nitrate measured between 0 and 5 using liquid test; while it is a new kit all of my aquariums 'cept maybe the guppy tank should have near 0 nitrate so i just have to assume i did the test correctly 😉 I might get some strips at petco to cross test when i go by this afternoon:
@Seattle_Aquarist @nabokovfan87 this is a picture of the current overflow and I would think it does the skimming you mentioned but if not can you explain how it differs from a skimmer (there are 4 of these connected to two overflow boxes):
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On 11/30/2023 at 7:13 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:
Hi @anewbie Not really, there are several designs out there but a external overflow box with a skimmer looks basically like this:
The trick is to get enough flow through the box to effectively draw the algae laden surface water into the box. -RoyI think what you all are suggesting might be the trick but not practical on an aquarium like this - first the flow would have to be quite higher than the current flow and sending all that water down to the sump would require massive amount of tubing and days of planning. If the box shoots is self contained and shoots the water back out into the aquarium and doesn't have to be routed - i would still need 4000 to 8000 gph flow i think since the current 4000 gph isn't sucking in the algae fast enough to digest it.
Or did i miss something - also i did turn on the uv system the last weekend but it doesn't seem to be helping - basically all the water is now flowing through a 40 watt uv thingy. Maybe the actual algae isn't being sucked into the sump - maybe somehow it is bringing in water just below the algae or something like that - no clue.
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I'll measure the nitrate level this weekend and then respond back to this thread - what happens if i turn off the light for 2 weeks? The water has a 3 gallon per hour drip system with ro water so i kind of suspect low nitrate but will double check - the largest fish is a clown loach around 6 inches - while there are a lot of fishes in there it is only marginally more than i had in my 120 in an aquarium that is 4 1/2 times larger.
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Lights are off now but either tomorrow or saturday i'll take pictures of the current overflow boxes and where they collect water to help move this along.
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On 11/30/2023 at 6:52 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:
Hi @anewbie,
WOW! THAT IS ONE B-I-G TANK!!! What is it about 950 gallons or so?
Algae is almost always caused by too much light (intensity, duration, or both) + too much nutrients. You didn't indicate the water parameters, specifically nitrates (NO3) so I would start there. With big fish comes big poop so in addition to fertilizer the amount of food and nitrogenous waste can cause high nitrate levels.You would think that 800 GPH of filtration would be sufficient however for my tanks my filter GPH is about 10X the tank volume. Extra flow in that tank would likely help. I agree with @nabokovfan87 about a skimmer. If it were my tank I would use an external overflow box with built-in skimmer, add some filter floss to the box and hook up a pump that will draw water from the tank, through the external overflow, and return to the tank. You will likely have to change filter floss a few times a day until the surface clears. Don't let a build up of the algae in the overflow box start to die, it will starve the tank of oxygen as it decomposes. Also do not turn off the lights, the dying algae does the same thing. Hope this helps! -Roy
The aquarium is 10 feet long 4 feet wide and 2 feet high (~550 gallons); also i misquoted the turn over from the pumps it is approx 3000 to 4000 gph turnover.
(the pumps are 4 (FOUR) jebao dcp-5000 which are running at 80% capacity. I think each pump is rated at 24 gallon per minute so 4*24*60*0.8 or nomally 4608 gph then take off 15% for the lost energy moving the water up 3 1/2 - 4 feet or approx 3900 gph.
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I'm not sure what you all are recommending the tank has 2 overflow boxes with intake at water level - is this skimmer some other device i slip over the rim? will it go down far enough to reach the water (approx 1 inch from the edge of the rim). How will it interact with the current overflow boxes and the sump ?
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On 11/30/2023 at 5:09 PM, nabokovfan87 said:
Yeah. I agree. It's like biofilm for the most part and maybe that stagnation is causing things to sit and build up and then end up with that algae/slime forming.
It does hurt gas exchange. Whether that matters given the sump oxygenation is tough to say without testing the levels.
I don't have a way to measure oxygen level and even if i did i wouldn't know but i do have sponge filters in there so some air being injected. I'll try to find a power head in the basement - stuff sort of got thrown around when i moved a couple of months ago and if i can find it put it near the front and see if that shocks the stuff. The 450 is perfectly clear but the 550 has a film go figure. Maybe it is the loaches fault.
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On 11/30/2023 at 1:52 PM, nabokovfan87 said:
Do you have a surface skimmer handy? Especially on a tank that size, having an overflow or skimmer might be really helpful.
Not a surface skimmer but the aquarium does have two overflows for the sump. The current is lacking on the surface even with nearly 800 gallon per hour turn over.
On 11/30/2023 at 2:05 PM, jwcarlson said:I wouldn't say I'm "battling it" on a couple tanks. But I have a couple that have this going on. I don't really understand how or why. It's basically like an algae slime. I've tried netting it out or swirling a tweezers in there and balling it up. It just comes back basically instantly. I'm hoping it's a flow issue and when I get the new uplift tubes I can prevent it by directing some flow around the surface.
Do you know if it actually causes any problems - as i noted it is only on the surface and the cichild do spend quite a bit of time picking at it. Of course with the aquarium this size i can't really net it - i thought about adding several power heads to increase surface flow but not sure this is actually an issue.
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You could do ember but it is not highly recommended; same for green neon - i have ember in my 10 and 29; and while they are not super active they do like to swim a little; green neon are more active than ember but also smaller. The same for most of the rasbora - some are less active - i think the smallest typically found is the chili but not sure how active it is.
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shrimp would be a very good solution and maybe a single betta after the shrimp are established; sure the betta will eat a few but if the aquarium is well scaped the shrimp will multiple faster than the betta can snack. Just have hiding places. This is my 10; a bit bigger than a 5 but the cichild in there love snacking on shrimp but still the shrimps populate faster than the get snacked on:
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In my 10ftx4ft aquarium - the surface has developed a layer of algae; what (if anything) should i do to resolve this issue.
I've not seen this before - the plants and area below the surface is fine and algae free but the surface has developed a layer of algae; i'm not sure if this is bad for the fishes (oxygen?) or why this algae is on the surface but with such a large aquarium i'm not sure if i should or can do anything about it...
@Seattle_Aquarist have you seen something like this before ?
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I'm lousy at id but i'd lean torwards a shell fish from the fins i don't think he is any of the common species of apisto.
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My rams never bothered with caves; they usually spawned on wood or whatever and the dug pits for wrigglers (you should have fairly fine substrate for all species of dwarf cichild; and be aware that when the eggs hatch they move the baby to a clean area - the stages are eggs; wrigglers (hatched but can't swim); free swimming.
Even when i bother to put n caves other than rare occasion (my male nannacara used one as a retreat; and my pleco used one to raises 10 gazillion frys); most of time they wiggle their little noses at me in disgust and ignore them.
Oh yea my female krib used one to watch her frys - mind you their actual home at night was a pit they dug under drift wood and she would heard the frys in there at night but during the day one of their grazing area was near a cave where she would sit and carefully watch them:
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Naw you don't need dirt - a root tab won't hurt but i use pool filter sand - threw in some vals and a month later it quad-truple or something in size - infact i spent the last 2 weeks pulling out new plants because they spread out of permissible regions. Anyway it might help if you give your water parameters and par - a couple of root tabs certainly won't hurt but don't go overboard this isn't plant that requires a lot. One thing i will note is val i buy have always been over 8 inches tall (my tank is 24 inches tall); but having a bit of length will certainly help as it will get stronger light and this is a plant that will eat all available light. One other thing there are different types of vals - the only one that haven't grown no matter how much i abuse it is the cork-screw one i forget the name but it spiral around. That one requires a bit of hugging.
Also current can impact this plant but your current would have to be extreme.
Oh one other thing patience is required - at least 30 days perhaps 60 days as the plant can take a while to adjust to your water - and temp can impact the plant depending on variety - i mostly grow it between 76 and 82 - it has a wider range (dependent on species) that just happpens to be the temp i feed it. And as i mentioned above pool filter sand is as inert as substrate can be inert.
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On 11/26/2023 at 9:19 PM, MattyIce said:
This is a Great video that Cory put out years ago if you are into South Americans/giant tanks, at around 39:30 Mel starts getting into cold water changes and tank temps during spawning time vs winter time. and mentions 78 during the summer and 70-72 in the winter, and how it helps them recognize the seasons and spawn better, but also stresses them a little to help them spawn better. But that is for that specific kind of fish, if you have different fish, it might be different.
For the thank that is at 81 that is the lower end of those fishes further south; L172a and winemilleri - they really can't handle water much colder. The fuse went on the heater (it is a dedicated circuit) and the tank dropped to 76 and 2 fishes died during that period.
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On 11/26/2023 at 7:21 PM, MattyIce said:
When I said I had my tanks spread out in a big room that I was heating to 73, it was a big room.
I was heating a 15' X 20' room with a pitched ceiling at 10' on one end and 12' on the other end. Essentially, I went from heating 3200 cubic feet to heating 450 cubic feet.
I am not sure how inefficient aquarium heaters are, I think it has more to do with their lack of circulation, same with any heater kind of. if you have a 400 gallon pool pond and all you have are sponge filters, it is going to be horrible, but if you have it inline with a 2000 gph pump, you could probably heat that 400 gallons with a 300 watt heater.
though as far as gas/oil, I dont think it is cheaper, instead I think that with a furnace or hot water heater, you are already putting energy into maintaining that water at like 160 degrees 24/7, so syphoning off a few gallons of 160 degree water to mix with colder water is kind of like using something you already have while the in tank heaters are extra electricity.I don't remember the details but i can try to find an old thread if you are interested - i found it by random wasn't really looking for it. My 'fish room' are 25x18 (ft) and 25x19 - both have 10 foot ceiling but the 2nd one is partially underground (basement level on a hillside; so the door side is ground level and as you move west in the room you are walking underground as the hill slopes up. Anyway it is what it is - wasn't really describing my solution just mention tidbits from something i read. For me i'm waiting to see my electric bill this winter to make decisions. My 550 and 450 in the 25x18 room both require 2000 watt (2 1000 watt heaters); the 550 is only 78 but the 450 is 81 so quite a bit - the 25x18 and 25x19 are both on the same heater which is sep from the rest of the house but each room has their own thermostat. Right now i'm keeping the 25x19 at 72 and the 25x18 at 68 but might warm it - the rest of the house is 66. On the positive my home heaters are geo-thermo 😉
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Oh yea i forgot to mention why so many aquariums - well they aren't really aquariums they are just glass cages for my plants. Some folks like the misery of working out doors in their garden but i prefer to garden indoors !
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Ok rather than pollute the today thread with more pictures of my water changes i decided to make a thread to talk about my various aquariums.
I currently have the follow aquariums:
10ftx4ftx23 (approx 550 gallons) (for loaches, festum and angels)
8ftx4ftx23 (approx 450 gallons) (for geo)
4ftx4ftx16 (approx 160 gallon) for (a. pucallpaensis b. cupido and c. hastatus) (oddly this tank has no schoolers)
4ftx30inchx16 (approx 120 gallon) for a. Bitaeniata n. morthenthale and some hatchet fishes.
72x30x16 (approx 180) bed room (for keyholes !!!)
72x24x24 (wild discus and blue rams)
4ftx2ftx2ft (whatever happens to land in there)
29 gallon 1 (pangio myersi !!!)
29 gallon 2 (c. equeus)
40B guppies !!!!
10 gallon (a. pucallpaensis and shrimp)
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Today we will post a couple of pictures from my bed room aquarium; why because today is sunday and i did a water change on it:
But before we get started this is my favorite aquarium:
It has everything - and probably too much hornworth; i did throw away about 70% of it yesterday but alas it still has too much... how hum i guess next week i'll reduce it a bit more. The plant on the right to the left of the golden anubia is an interesting plant i picked up in may called a red lip crypt pontederiifolia; it is less green than your typical pontederifolia and with strong light and a touch of co2 is quite purple - but this aquarium has neither super strong light nor co2 and it still grows fine just a touch more green. I think after 7 months we can say it is safely settled in and growing.
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Now for the 72x30 - we start with some very very naughty fish that could use a good spanking 'cept i dont' care too much:
What happened is moved some dwarf sag that had sent runners the wrong way and left some exposed roots. Guess who loves to eat plant roots.... and and he didn't eat just one he ate all of the 'xposed ones and then dug up some more!
Now on to some more interesting pictures:
This is a pink nurri rosen (I think); it is like your typical nurri rosen but more pink and no it doesn't require any co2:
This is a very large pink jacobii - i swear it is a wenditti that someone painted pink; it also doesn't require co2 and my red lizards love to hide under it (I have 4) they also show you just how colourful this plant is and that it isn't an optical illusion
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This is your more typical nurii rosen - really a nice plant without all that ugly pink in the pink nurii and jacobi - a welcome constrast - don't you disagree ?
This is an expensive plant i really abused when it is was in the 40B; luckily it is growing just fine in the new aquarium now that i got rid of that pesty co2 that was killing everything. It is called crypt cordata var siamensis; probably should have gotten 2 of them but they were a bit expensive and i didn't know if they would grow in my aquarium. Hopefully this one will send out a runner or something - it has put out 2 new leaves in the past 8 weeks (i'm talking about the plant that is green with white lines in the middle).
Last boring picture; this is my e. kleiner prinz plant. You can compare it to this picture and see it has sent out new leaves; they were a tad greener than they should be so i relocated it directly under the light. I know with co2 and strong light it will turn a brilliant wine colour but we shall see what it does without co2.
(older picture below from what you are doing thread; the one above has 2 new leaves and they are a little taller)
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On 11/24/2023 at 6:59 PM, MattyIce said:
I didn't do this today, but figured I'd share. I have been planning this tank Tetris move for nearly a month and finally got it done a little over a week ago.
From right to left it is 2 custom low boys I made out of 29 gallons, sitting over a 150 gallon tub, sitting over a 40 gallon tub, then a 20 gallon long sitting over a 100 gallon tub, next is a shelf with a 40 gallon, a 29 gallon, and 2 10 gallons, sitting over a 75 gallon, with a 40 gallon tub kind of hidden on the floor in the back right corner. Next is a 50 gallon tub and hidden under that in the back left corner I have a 55 gallon drum for aging water that I pump out of my well. Also under the 50 gallon I have a trash can on wheels hooked to a transfer pump for water changes, and then all the way to the left is a 100 gallon tub.
I used to have all my tanks spread out in a big room, I'd heat the room to 73 ish with a 4000 watt electric heater, and use heaters in the tanks closer to the floor that I needed a little warmer, now I have them all in this 8' x 8' x7' tall space under my loft/bunkbed, with a whole bunch of curtains hung up around it to trap the heat.
So for the last week I've been using a good fan for circulation and the hot air from a dehumidifier to heat the space. The coldest my tanks get are 73-74ish and I'm down 20-30 kilowatts a day. This little change could save me 200+ dollars a month on electricity during these winter months.
This raises an interesting topic since aquarium heaters are quite in efficient. I follow another forum where they mostly talk about 400 to 1000 gallon aquariums and a lot of discus keepers actually gave up on using aquarium heaters (too expensive) and would run hot water pipes into their sumps with some sort of re-circulation logic to save 100s of dollar on heating their aquarium per year (gas heating is more efficient i guess); also folks with large fish rooms just heat the room. I do keep my room with aquariums warmer than the rest of the house - the house is 66-68 setting while the two rooms with aquariums are 72 (still on the low end since my warmer aquariums are around 82); and i've been debating if i should raise the temp of those rooms - guess i could run some test this year if winter is harsh enough. The heater i use have zones with dedicated zones for the two rooms in question; of course the rooms aren't sealed so heat does leak into the rest of the house which is inefficient. I guess i could keep the door close but ... havent' gone that far yet. Still i was impressed with the amount of $$$ those folks with large aquariums was saving. Unfortunately i just skimmed the details since i wasn't savy enough to implement what they were implementing however it suggest that using a dedicated gas heater for very large aquairum or rooms with many aquariums is cost effective.
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S. Repens issue continued.
in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers
Posted
Most epsom salt have additive which is unhealthy for fishes; Last time i was at whole food their 365 brand was suitable for internal usage (i think it can be used as a laxative or something) and it was dirt cheap; conversely places like nilogc sell epsom salt. However if you order random epsom salt on amazon or similar make sure it has no additive as it might be quite unsuitable for critters (if you have critters in your plant thingy).